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m0rl0ck

08-19-2003 12:54 AM

Bash: How to tell a tty from a pts?

This is what I have:

#!/bin/bash
echo $(tty)
if "$(tty)" == "*pts*" ;
then

echo yes
fi

What Im getting is:
/dev/pts/1
./test: line 3: /dev/pts/1: Permission denied

What I want is:
/dev/pts/1
yes

Appatently the script is interpreting the line if "$(tty)" == "*pts*" ; as an attempt to access the device rather than as a string comparision.

Anyone know a way to get this script to echo "yes" or how to tell a pts from a tty using bash?

shishir

08-19-2003 04:47 AM

firstly you are using the if condition in a wrong way...at the time of comparison in the if statement ...it tries to execute the command in the tty variable...
so the right way of using an if statement
if [ $tty = "*pts* ]

second this would not help you compare the two strings as in this case the *pts* doesnt translate to meta-characters..ie...your comparison would always fail..youd have to do some sort of string parsing....awk is the easiest way out....
echo $tty | awk '{s=match($0,"pts");if (s == 0) print ""not found " else print "found",print $0 }'
this will give you the output you want

Hko	08-19-2003 05:25 AM

Quote:

so the right way of using an if statement
if [ $tty = "*pts* ]

No. tty is a command, not a variable. So the output of the tty command needs to be captured using backticks: `tty` or using $(tty).

One way to do it:

Code:

#!/bin/bash



if tty | fgrep pts ; then

        echo yes

fi

Or, another:

Code:

#!/bin/bash



TTY=$(tty)

TMP=${TTY%/*}

TMP=${TMP##*/}



echo $TTY

if [ "$TMP" == "pts" ] ; then

        echo yes

fi

shishir

08-19-2003 06:16 AM

yeah i know that tty is a command, but i sure can take the output of tty in a variable, named tty..by doing tty=`tty`.....that is what i am saying....

but i think you are right ..m0rl0ck is confused how to use the commands and variables in the if statement..

i did not know about the string manipulation like you showed in your later example....

i used awk as i was just dabbling with it for similar purposes right now...:)

m0rl0ck

08-21-2003 06:26 AM

Thanks for the help :)
String comparisions in shell dont seem as straight forward as in php or perl.
Decided to go with your example using fgrep, its short and to the point, thanks again.

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